Letters on
a wide range of subject matter that do not pertain directly to this
website. All those other letters that do pertain to this site
are kept personal and are not posted unless under special
circumstances.

As most of us know, UFO is short for "Unidentified
Flying Object" and is often times connected with advanced and
more evolved (intelligent) alien beings. NASA has spent
billions of taxpayers dollars in search for life on other
planets. The agency got a big boost from President Bush when
he announced that he is going to increase their program even
more in order for man to make a trip to the moon then a trip
to the planet Mars. Mars of course has been a focus for
alien life for a considerable amount of years. NASA has
received billions of dollars for exploring the planet for
possible signs of life forms. However, as of May 30, 2008 even
after the spacecraft "Phoenix" had landed and had begun it's
digging expedition, it was reported that Mars is way too salty
for life forms. Data collected by the rover "Opportunity" and
by an orbiting spacecraft indicates the water was a "thick
brine" making it impossible for supporting life. However, the new report hasn't diminished the
hype about the "Phoenix" and it's mission to find life.

Darwinism, Science Fiction Writers, Paganism, and the
Media Have influenced the Modern UFO Movement

H.G Wells

H.G.
Wells one of the pioneer writers of science fiction and one of
the reasons why NASA is still looking for life on Mars. H.G.
Wells was a humanist, historian, a socialist, and a "futurist"
as many would describe him. Wells believed in alien life
forms more advanced than humans through the theory of
Darwinism. He wrote a book which had reflected his
beliefs, and has become very famous many times over with
various types on impacts on the public through the years. This
book of course is called; "War of the Worlds" which was
published in 1898. H.G. Wells was born on
September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent County, England, son of
Sarah Neal, maid to the upper classes, and Joseph Wells,
shopkeeper and professional cricket player.

The
Wells family were poor and it was not the happiest of
marriages; as they eventually separated but neither
re-married. In 1883 H.G Wells won a scholarship to the
Normal School of Science in London. Here is where Wells was
taught biology and Darwinism under Thomas Henry Huxley's
grandfather. Wells wasn't the greatest student of science, he
was unable to complete his studies for his degree and lost his
scholarship. Faced with hardship, his Aunt and Uncle took him
in and enhanced his education by teaching him themselves. H.G.
Wells had a love for writing fictional stories about the
future, he wrote a number of books in 1895, which included the
"The Time Machine" and "The Wonderful Visit." Also in 1897, a
year before "World of the Worlds" came out he wrote a book
called; "The Invisible Man."

The Media's First Major Impact on the UFO
Movement

Nine
years prior to the Gallop poll in 1947, the world witness the
power of the media. On October 30, 1938 a radio transmission
telling a fictional story about aliens coming from Mars to
take over the planet earth. The three headed creatures were
advanced, their weapons were too as it was able to destroyed
7,000 armed troops with a ray gun on their vessel. Many
buildings were destroyed by these creatures. After
listening to this transmission, people panicked. Many took up
arms to defend themselves against the attack. There were many
calls to the police for help against these aliens. Even the
National Guard was mobilized to defend the country from the
alien attack. As it turned out, it was nothing more than
a mere UFO hoax. War of the Worlds by Orson Wells made
millions of dollars and perhaps helped sparked the UFO
movement into the mainstream worldwide some many years later.
But the hoax didn't stop in America, later on it was played in
other parts of the world with similar results from the
public. The hoax was very well timed as the world was on the
brink of war with the Nazis and Japan.

Isaac Asimov

Born on
January 2, 1920 to Jewish parents. He become a biochemist and
science fiction writer who rejected his parents religion and
became a humanist. He was president of American Humanist
Association until the year He died which was in 1992. Isaac
Asimov's first published work was when he was 18 in 1939. The
story was called; "Marooned Off Vesta" where three men who
survive the wreck of the spaceship in a Asteroid Belt and find
themselves trapped in orbit around the asteroid Vesta.
The story ended with three men managing to save themselves
with little resources. In 1950, Isaac Asimov wrote a story
called; "I Robot" which later became a Hollywood hit movie in
2004 as it grossed millions of dollars. Although it wasn't
quite the vision Asimov wanted but a lot of his ideas were
incorporated into the movie. Another story called; "The
Bicentennial Man" which wasn't quite the hit "I Robot" was but
still made plenty of money.

Arthur C. Clarke

Best
known for 2001, Space Odyssey. Arthur C. Clarke was born in
the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England on December
16, 1917. In 1936, he moved to London where he joined the
"British Interplanetary Society" where he started writing
about science fiction and radio transmissions to so-called
aliens. In 1945, Clarke wrote about principles for satellite
communications called; "Extra Terrestrial Relays". His
principles brought much attention to him as later on in life
he received many awards for his work. In 1948, he received
first class honors in Physics and Mathematics at the King's
College, London. He married Marilyn Mayfield in 1953.
They divorce shortly after and later Clarke said he wasn't the
marrying type but believed everyone should try it once.
In 1954, Clarke wrote to Dr Harry Wexler, then chief of the
Scientific Services Division, U.S. Weather Bureau. This was
the start of using satellites for weather forecasting. In
1964, he worked with a Hollywood script writer and 2001, Space
Odyssey was born. In 1985, Clarke wrote a follow-up to the
movie called; : 2010: Odyssey Two which later became another
movie.

Carl Sagan

Born on
November 9, 1934 Sagan who was a humanist received doctorates
in astronomy and astrophysics from the University of Chicago
in 1960. Sagan was very heavy into evolution as it was
connected to anthropology. He influenced NASA with the Pioneer
missions, the Viking mission, and later on the Voyager
missions. He wrote and co-wrote numerous books one of which is
called; "Comos" which later became a popular tv-series which
Sagan hosted himself. He began searching for other life
forms besides humans in the 1950s. Sagan also won
various awards including the Pulitzer Prize. He founded the
The Planetary Society which has over 100,000 members
strong. In 1996, he died of a bone marrow disease.
Sagan's influence for searching for alien life forms from
other planets like the previous science fiction writers before
him was enormous.

From Extreme to Now Mainstream

What
once was an extreme viewpoint to believe in UFOs as being
alien is now mainstream. Jimmy Carter was the first President
to admit he now only believed in UFOs but he said he
personally saw one himself. In 1976, he told reporters this;
"It was the darndest thing I've ever seen. It was big, it
was very bright, it changed colors and it was about the size
of the moon.. We watched it for ten minutes, but none of us
could figure out what it was. One thing's for sure, I'll never
make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects
in the sky. If I become President, I'll make every piece of
information this country has about UFO sightings available to
the public and the scientists."

For
about 10-12 minutes in October 1969, and the place where the
alleged UFO appeared to the former President was in Leary,
Georgia. Carter's testimony which would have been considered
"extreme" had no affect on him getting elected to the Oval
Office. However, the UFO movement was disappointed by
the results of Carter's promises which was to reveal "every
piece of information this country has about UFO sightings."
Hardcore UFO believers came to the conclusion he was convinced
by the government to be part of the problem of a cover-up
rather than be part of their solution.

Looking at what God has Created: A Vast
Universe

All of the science fiction writers who have influenced NASA
with the help of Hollywood movies have one thing in
common. And that is, they are all loyal and dedicated
Humanists who have some beliefs in paganism. It's an odd
combination, but we will see later on when it comes to UFO
abductions which will reveal more of the two elements of their
respected belief system intermixing with each other.

Now
many problems have come up since Darwin's death such as
"Creation Science" and the complexity of "DNA" which has some
evolutionists shaking their head. This is because life
is suppose to come out dead chemicals, to living simple cells
that evolved into more complex cells. These dead chemicals
have no origin or explanation on how the raw material was
created in the first place. Yet, they are still confident in
what they believe in. Some know evolution is impossible but do
not want to believe that God created all things as the
Scriptures state;

Genesis 1:1

In
the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth...

Humanists who reject pagan gods for creating the
universe or God himself but know evolution could not process
itself rely on the belief that aliens created man out of
various highly advanced methods one of which is out of DNA.
The UFO cult known as Raelians are a typical example of those
who believe there was an intelligent creator but it wasn't
God.

When
one looks up into the deeps of outer space there are many
important factors UFO believers overlook or explain it in a
line of reasoning which is part of the occult. As Christians
know, the Universe as being created in a mature state by God.
When God created the Universe the light from other stars and
planets were already in the sights of man. There was no time
factor there. Adam and Eve were not formed out of dead
chemicals over a period of millions of years when they were
created, neither were they infants or conceived in the
mother's womb. There were mature adults.

When we
look at the Universe and see a massive place beyond our own
imaginations with stars, planets, galaxies, black holes,
exploding stars, and more. Just look at our closest galaxy the
Milky Way which has between 200 billion and
400 billion stars in it. It's diameter 100,000
light-years; its average thickness is about 10,000
light-years, increasing to 30,000 light-years at the nucleus.
From the Milky Way to the nearest Galaxy from there is over 2
million light years away. It has a diameter of about 165,000
light-years and contains at least 200 billion stars. If UFOs
were real, this would make aliens very old. And their
civilizations even older, at least tens of thousands to
millions of years at the speed of light to travel to earth on
a one way ticket.

Space Travel

Speaking of space travel, a well know scientist name
Einstein theorized the maximum speed possible for an object
would be the speed of light. Even in space, the more mass you
have, such as the size of the spaceship and the mass inside
which includes crew and equipment, the more energy is
needed to propel it through space. Just because there is
no weight in space doesn't mean it takes less energy to move
heavy objects forward which brings us to this question. How
much energy would it actually take to travel at the speed of
light?

Kinetic Energy=1/2 (mass) (velocity) (velocity)

Massive
energy is a vital component when it comes to traveling at very
high speeds. Take a simple 100 pound mass. To propel this
object at the speed of light would require 39,200 atomic bombs
of energy. And we are not talking about maintaining that
speed for thousands and millions of years. We are only talking
about how much energy would it take to propel the 100 pound
object that fast. Wouldn't you say it's an incredible amount
of energy, isn't it? Indeed it is. Can you imagine how
much energy it would take a Space Shuttle to travel at the
speed of light? Just think for a moment, how much energy
the Shuttle would need to go that fast. When one calculates
the amount, it would take an astounding 46 million atomic
bombs to propel the Space Shuttle at that enormous speed and
even more to maintain it.

But
let's say for the sake of argument there is an energy source
that is able to propel a spaceship at the speed of light
and maintain it for a long period of time. This presents a
major problem as well for space travel. You see, space is not
like an empty room were you would never run into any objects
going from one side of the room to the next. On the contrary,
we know space is full of stars, planets and so on, but it also
has objects known as space dust. It has been estimated that
there are 100,000 dust particles per cubic kilometer floating
in space. At the speed of light it's 300,000 dust particles
per kilometer. An impact at the speed of light with just one
of these space particles would destroy the spacecraft.

So this
makes detection a vital component when traveling through space
at ultra high speeds but it's not the solution rather it
presents another problem. Because it would have to be even
faster with it's processes than the speed of light. And not
only that, but being able to react with a directive to move
the spacecraft at the precise moment to avoid the floating
space dust particles. Taking all these factors into account
would make traveling at the speed of light impossible.
Energy shields are generally the answer in science fiction
movies and books to solve this problem, but even if that was a
real possible defense, the highly intense bombardment of
millions even billions and trillions of space particles
depending how far your traveling would also be impossible. The
Hubble Space telescope which only goes at a tiny fraction of
light speed has holes in it from these objects and it's only
been circling the Earth for 15 years.

Traveling Through Space to the Edge of the
Universe

In the
next part of these series we will look at the mystery that
most UFO believers claim is proof that aliens exist and are
watching us. Most of you know the story, or at least part of
it, if not I will review it once again either way. The
incident I'm referring to is; "Roswell" which has been the
focus of serious UFO believers for a long time. It's
motivation and hope comes from the "Gap Theory" which will be
looking at more next time.

But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased.